No Democratic Mandate for Leaving the Single Market

The Green Party has branded Theresa May’s plans to take the country out of the Single Market, and out of the Customs Union, as an extreme gamble for our future and potentially reckless.

South West MEP and Stroud resident Molly Scott Cato, who is the Green Party speaker on EU relations, said:

“With the slogan 'Take back control' ringing in her ears, the Prime Minister has decided to ignore the will of the British people and take us out of the single market. There is no democratic mandate for this decision and it reverses the promise to stay inside, without which the British people would not have been convinced to leave the EU. Like the referendum itself, it is a decision taken for convenience of the Conservative Party, not for the good of the country or for the wellbeing of the British people.

“The massive impact on businesses of leaving the single market, while our Government attempts to negotiate bilateral trade deals, is reckless and could jeopardise small and medium sized businesses, currently in a membership of a market of 500m customers. This means that the Tories can no longer claim to be the party of business. Surveys have also shown that the public would rather keep the UK in the single market than cap immigration.

“May's Brexit speech also failed to offer any guarantees on maintaining the high standards of environmental protection that EU membership provides, while the threats of a new low tax economic model are a slap in the face to the many people on the Left of British politics who voted to Leave.

“It is clear that May government has no political, let alone popular, mandate for the hard Brexit she intends to pursue. The Tory right is taking the country by the throat, cheered on by the more unsavoury forces of the right. This is not a plan to bring the country together; the hard Brexit May has chosen to follow means it will continue to be torn apart”.